He goes by many names: Him, The Deliverer, God Slayer,
Avenging Hand of Light. Whatever you call him, Adam Warlock is one of the most impressive
specimens in the galaxy. So Will Poulter, the actor who plays him, had to put in the work.
"Adam Warlock in 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.' Look at your face. That's a lot. This is a lot!"
Building a superhero physique is an unbelievably grueling process. Bulking
and shaping up is hard work for anyone, especially when it means transforming a
comedic actor like Ryan Reynolds into Deadpool, or the diminutive
Natalie Portman into the Mighty Thor. Will Poulter's superhero upgrade was no exception,
and the actor has opened up about the challenges involved in his "rigid" routine.
In an interview with the Independent, Poulter mentioned how his whole life essentially became
training, consisting of "a lot of gym work and a very, very specific diet." He also
explained the sacrifices involved in spending so much time exercising and eating, saying,
"The whole social side of your life has to take a back seat. I'm in a routine that is so
rigid that being able to go out for dinner with friends is not something I've been able to do."
Clearly, the process is as much about what you can't do as it is about what you do.
Piecing together the timeline of his involvement with "Guardians of the
Galaxy Vol. 3," it's clear that Poulter wasted no time in beginning to bulk up.
The first news of Poulter being cast in the role came on October 11, 2021,
via Deadline, and was confirmed the same day by director James Gunn. Within two short days,
the actor had already revealed that he was getting in shape. In an interview with Flip Your Wig on
October 13, Poulter said that he had started the process of physically becoming Warlock,
and it showed even then. Poulter's arms were visibly larger than normal,
and though he humbly attributed the added muscle to simply trying to keep busy during the pandemic,
it's almost a certainty that those biceps were a product of his training.
Given that Deadline reported Poulter was short-listed for the role around two months prior,
it's likely that he was working out before the world even knew he had landed the role.
The majority of Poulter's responses when asked about his newfound physique have
been about eating instead of exercising. He told the Independent that his trainers kept
him on "a very, very specific diet." He explained,
"[It's] quantities of food you wouldn't necessarily want to ingest. And other times
not enough food. I've gone through a series of different diets over the last few months."
Though he didn't get much more specific due to Marvel's policy of being — as Poulter put
it — "all Secret Squirrel," he at least confirmed that he was given separate diets for building
mass, then cutting fat, then maintaining weight. His interview with GQ went much the same way:
Poulter avoided any specifics about his diet, but did bring a protein shake
with him for the 10 a.m. interview which, reporter Ben Allen noted, "speaks volumes."
"Do you like chicken nuggets?" "I love chicken nuggets! I was on a
diet where I probably would have had to take the batter off. Like, I would have been that person."
Like a lot of high-profile actors, Will Poulter is always working. So most of the information
about his Warlock workouts has come in the midst of interviews about the Hulu series
"Dopesick." According to Poulter, however, when it came time to become Adam Warlock,
he set everything else aside and made the transformation his life. He asserted to GQ
that Warlock was his only occupation at that moment. He then told Variety,
"It was actually my job to just kind of train and eat."
He made it clear that, to a large extent, he shut himself off from the world and just
focused on working out, consuming calories, and building muscle mass. For someone whose
career potentially enables them to take on multiple projects at the same time and earn
some major cash from each, his commitment to focusing on solely one job is admirable.
Probably the most common sentiment that Poulter has expressed when discussing his metamorphosis
into Adam Warlock is how much studio support he had throughout — and how grateful he is for
it. Essentially every time he's asked about his newly bulging biceps, he cites the financial,
physical, and mental support that Marvel and its affiliates gave him throughout the process.
"I worked with an amazing team of people who really took care of, kind of my mental health
through the process of going through all the physical sort of challenges."
He told Us Weekly,
"I was incredibly well supported and couldn't have had more help
in the respect of the diet and the training that was required. That
was key. Certainly not something I went away and did on my own."
He also mentioned his trainers often, saying they curated his workouts and created his
different diet plans. It's apparent that no matter what he did, he did it alongside some
of the best trainers that Marvel could get — which likely means the best trainers anyone could get.
One specific aspect of Poulter's evolution into Adam Warlock has drawn more attention
and appeared in more headlines than any other: his emphatic assertion that mental
health is more important than anything else when undergoing such a strenuous endeavor.
In particular, one quote from his Independent interview has
been at the center of the media focus. He said,
"The most important thing is that your mental and physical health has to be number one,
and the aesthetic goals have to be secondary,
otherwise you end up promoting something that is unhealthy and unrealistic."
That quote has drawn its share of analysis and praise, but regardless of what anyone
else believes, it's clear that Poulter deeply values his mental health and went
into the process of building a new body in a thoughtful, holistic way.